I'd like to let my house but 'keep' a room for my stuff

Comms69

luckysh0t wrote: »

Northern Ireland, ended a few years back.

Ah NI

Sorry should add NI has different rules e.g. mandatory electrical safety tests. Didn’t realise, my mistake.

DanielleJH

I've had this in both private rentals I've lived in. They were both my landlord's homes originally so I guess they felt more possessive than usual. One of them had a small padlocked airing type cupboard with ski stuff in off the hallway. The other had the attic locked (with an absolutely HUGE lock which intrigued me) and had tools and random crap in half of the garage. It didn't bother us as tenants as we didn't own much stuff and only ever rent fully furnished. I didn't even question the legality.

TallGirl

I rent my house out but have stuff in the loft (accessed by a hatch with a padlock) my tenants knew this when I advertised it and are fine with it. I don't ask for access only one when one moved and I asked for access in between but the new one had to rush to get in. My tenant does have the full use of the garage,

Blocking a whole room seems quite a bit why not dump what you don't need and put the rest into storage.

[Deleted User]

I think you can take it OP, as no, there are no laws you are breaking lolol. Suspect it would have come up by now if you were.

However, I do hope if you want to be a LL, you are looking into the Legal responsibilities and obligations of a LL generally.

ThePants999

luckysh0t wrote: »

It's down as a two bed in the land registry. The extra room is a study.

The Land Registry doesn't record the number of bedrooms in the property. Hell, it usually doesn't even record that there's a house at all. The clue's in the name - it's a register of land. It simply shows the boundaries of the land you own.

There is no "official" source saying that this room is a bedroom, or that room is a study. Any plan that shows such things is merely some individual's designation of the rooms, and a different individual can choose to designate them differently.

To my knowledge, there are only two ways that "law" comes into room labelling.
- Building regulations. Building regs have a bunch of requirements for a room to be appropriate as a bedroom. Nothing stops you sleeping in a room that building regs say is unfit to be a bedroom, but surveyors doing valuations won't consider a room to be a bedroom unless it meets the requirements, which means they'll value it less than you're trying to sell for if you're counting a bedroom that doesn't meet regs.
- https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/hmo-minimum-room-sizes-come-force-1-october-2018

theartfullodger

luckysh0t wrote: »

............... There's a spare room I'd like to keep all my stuff in but I'm just curious in case there's any statutory requirements that would come with withholding one room from the tenants or is it just a matter of making them aware and as long as they're happy that's fine? .........

You simply state it is excluded in the tenancy agreement.



Insurance will be "interesting".


Be aware if you do this you the landlord become liable for ALL the council tax. That's the law...

Comms69

theartfullodger wrote: »

You simply state it is excluded in the tenancy agreement.



Insurance will be "interesting".


Be aware if you do this you the landlord become liable for ALL the council tax. That's the law...

interestingly when I had this issue, even a solicitor didn't highlight this - so I've never considered it much

Murphybear

If the unthinkable happens and there is a fire or burglary, what happens about the LLs possessions. I assume you can't insure them as they are not yours and the LL may not be able to insure them as they are locked up in a house that that the LL doesn't live in.

(If I have the legal bits wrong please correct me.)

Nebulous2

How big is the garden? I know someone who stays in a large house with the owner abroad. They have a storage container of stuff in the garden, which is fenced off. I think it's mainly large stuff, possibly including quad bikes. It might be a risk for soft furnishings. It doesn't bother the tenants at all.

ProDave

We are letting our old house while we build out new one.

Because we have a lot of stuff to store, mainly furniture, the garage is excluded from the tenancy and the rent is a bit lower to reflect that. We can get access to the garage directly if we need any of our stuff so no problem for the tenants.

It was just written into the tenancy that the garage was not included.

Shortly we will be removing the last of our stuff and will see if the tenants want access to the garage for a small increase in rent.